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Royal Gorge Bridge & Park lays off two dozen employees

Layoffs stem from construction delays, loss of funds and city lease obligations

By Carie Canterbury

canterburyc@canoncitydailyrecord.com

Posted:
12/02/2013 10:00:19 PM MST

About two dozen full-time Royal Gorge Bridge & Park employees have been laid off. The news was confirmed Monday by the Royal Gorge Bridge Company of Colorado, who has had a lease with the Cañon City-owned property since 1947.

Half of the employees that were laid off were informed of the news last week, and the other half found out Monday. Each were informed individually by their supervisors.

Mike Bandera, general manager of the RGB&P and vice president of the RGCC, told the Daily Record Monday that many of the employees were long-term, some of whom had been with the company for 20 to 30 years.

The RGCC says the layoffs stem from construction delays, loss of funds and city lease obligations.

"We met with everybody a month or six weeks ago and told them there was a high probability of layoffs because of pushing back the October construction approvals," he said. "This happened after the council tabled our master plan and architecture, and that delayed construction another month or so."

About 17 full-time employees remain in their positions, Bandera said, including management, supervisors and security personnel. The remaining workers will help to get the bridge reopened once construction is complete.

"They will help to get people rehired and trained when we reopen," he said. "We are still projecting Aug. 1 (2014). We will have to start rehiring a staff in July, but we don't know how big because we don't know how much will be ready, and the park will be a little more efficient and somewhat different than what it was in the past."

Bandera said it was a "real blow" to have to lay off his staff.

"It's the last thing we wanted to do, but there is no good time to lay people off," he said. "It is a very sad time for us, and it's heart-wrenching — myself and the directors are hurting because of this."

Just days following the June 11 Royal Gorge Fire, about 150 seasonal and part-time employees were laid off. When the park does rehire its staff, Bandera said there is no guarantee which employees will be rehired, it depends on the needs of the park.

Officials planned to begin reconstruction in October, following City Council approval of a master plan presented by the Beck Group Design and Architectural Firm.

City Administrator Doug Dotson said the City Council approved a master plan Oct. 7, however, the RGCC fell short on funding.

"When the city approved this, we were going on the assumption that they represented to us that they had a certain amount of insurance money that would pay for the improvements and that we were all good to go," he said. "They came back later and said everything changed. I don't think you can put all of that around the City Council's neck."

Mayor Tony Greer said the insurance coverage is the cause for the delay.

"The reason they are laying people off is because they were under-insured on their loss of income insurance," Greer said.

Bandera said the funds to rebuild that park are separate from the business continuation insurance, which is based on being closed about a year, which would be June 2013 to June 2014.

"Once it jumped up to August, we had to start cutting expenses, all expenses, not just labor, in order to have money in the bank to make it to August and also be able to pay the city their lease payments that are due in September and January," he said. "We asked for forgiveness on that because of these unforeseen circumstances and basically, we were told 'let's just wait and see' ... when they put us in that mode, we had to start budgeting for the worst case."

City Councilman Kevin Ditmore said after the first plan was approved, the bridge company learned it was $10 million short and came back with a revised plan.

The council needed time to review the plan and agree what should be included, and what should be left out, including the historic incline railway.

"We have to accept some responsibility for the delay because of our meeting requirements and posting meetings," Greer said. "This committee (Greer, Ditmore and Dotson) didn't have the authority to make decisions on the spot, we had to have a public hearing and we scheduled those as quickly as possible."

In November, the RGCC asked the council to consider the 2014 payment be based on actual revenue. If the council agrees, they anticipate the total payment to be about $504,000 for the fiscal year compared to the $1.6 million the city expected to receive in 2013. Bandera said the city is still requiring the bridge company to pay what it would pay if they were open and collecting revenue.

"We had a catastrophic incident happen and they have the leeway in the lease to forgive us for a year or more towards the 80 percent rule," he said. "It's an undue hardship on us to have to do that when we're not open and selling tickets."

He said the lease states that if the bridge company doesn't pay at least 80 percent of what was paid the previous year, the city has the option to terminate the lease. Bandera said the RGCC doesn't want to lose its lease with the city — it has 12 years remaining on the current agreement.

"We have done a great job since 1947 running that park," he said. "At this time, we have to budget for worst case, and that is we have to have the money to pay the lease payment to the city."

Dotson said the city also is feeling the sting from projected loss of revenue. During Monday's regular council meeting, he announced nine city positions were eliminated and several anticipated projects will be delayed that were planned for 2014.

Bandera said foundations for the buildings at the park are expected to be poured in January or February.

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